Erin Patterson has traded her comfortable life as an heiress and country mother for a life as a cellmate in one of Australia’s most notorious women’s prisons.
From this weekend, the new inmate at Victoria’s Dame Phyllis Frost Center could come into contact with some of Australia’s most evil women.
Inmates at the 600-capacity prison include “Black Widow” serial killer Robyn Lindholm, gangland matriarch and murderer Judy Moran and violent “petty terrorist” Momena Shoma.
Ms Patterson – who was charged on Thursday with three counts of murder stemming from the Wellington Death Cap Mushroom Beef lunch she hosted at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, on July 29 – is being held there pending trial.
Erin Patterson, property heiress and mother of two, has left her comfortable life behind for a prison cell at the dreaded Dame Phyllis Frost women’s detention centre.
Inmates at the infamous prison include ‘little terrorist’ Momena Shoma, who added six years to her already harsh sentence by stabbing another woman in the stream with garden shears.
From this weekend, the new inmate of Victoria’s infamous Dame Phyllis Frost Center can expect to rub shoulders with the ‘girls’, some of the country’s most evil women.
The charges against her as an alleged poisoner with multiple victims — Erin Patterson is also charged with five counts of attempted murder by poisoning — will likely follow her to prison where cruel nicknames abound.
One of Mrs. Patterson’s complaints after the death of her husband’s parents and aunt was that she had been wrongly labeled a “wicked witch.”
The 49-year-old former accountant and editor of a national newspaper will be held in pre-trial detention for at least five months until she stands trial for the three alleged murders and five attempted murders.
She will go through a jail induction process tonight or this weekend following an appearance in court on Friday following her formal arraignment by detectives, which followed her arrest on Thursday.
After being handed over her ‘civvies’, she is searched and scanned and her mugshot is taken. She will also be measured, weighed and presented with a set of prison greens, the tracksuit worn by prisoners at the Dame Phyllis Frost complex.
Alumni of the women’s prison include serial killer ‘Black Widow’ and former stripper Robyn Lindholm (above), who has been held there since 2013
Inmates at the jail, where violent attacks are not uncommon, could be housed in the protective unit where Erin Patterson is expected to stay given the notoriety of her case.
She is assigned a prison number and a cell, most likely in the protection wing of the prison, given the notoriety of her case.
This would take place in one of two special cell blocks housing 20 prisoners, where prisoners with a history of violence against other prisoners or guards are segregated.
One of those prisoners was Momena Shoma, the Bangladeshi Islamic State fanatic who has continued her violence behind bars.
Shoma, sentenced to a maximum of 42 years for stabbing a host family in Melbourne in the neck in 2018, attacked a female inmate with garden shears.
She was given a further six years added to her sentence in 2021 and stated: ‘I am proud of myself.’
Veronica Marie Nelson died alone in her Dame Phyllis Frost prison cell in January 2020, after at least 49 recorded requests for help were ignored by prison staff.
Earlier this year, an investigation found there had been a cover-up of gross negligence and discrimination that contributed to Ms Nelson’s death.
The prison was also home to crime matriarch Judy Moran, who was found guilty of murdering her brother-in-law Desmond Moran and sentenced in 2011 to 26 years in prison, with a minimum of 21 years.
Erin Patterson (above) is now on remand in the infamous Dame Phyllis Frost Prison, Victoria’s largest women’s prison
Erin Patterson, dressed in a beige top, has a last moment of freedom before entering the Wonthaggi police station, where she has been charged several times, including three for alleged murder.
Moran had been married to crime boss Lewis Moran and the mother of murderers Jason and Mark Moran – all of whom had been killed during Melbourne’s infamous gangland war.
Judy Moran lived in a disability unit in a special section of the prison.
The prison’s alumni also include former stripper and “Black Widow” serial killer Robyn Lindholm, who was jailed for 25 years in 2013 for killing her lover.
Lindholm was sentenced to more prison time after being found guilty of another brutal murder in 2019.
Erin Patterson can also expect to encounter killer Biannca Edmunds, who was sentenced last month to 26 years behind bars for the brutal murder of her ex-partner.
The Dame Phyllis Frost Center also contains a room that no inmate dares sleep in because a newborn baby died there.
Baby A’ was just 12 days old when she died in her mother’s arms in the prison’s special Mothers and Children Units in 2018.
A typical cell in the women’s prison that will house Erin Patterson, who is admitted to the infamous prison this weekend
Erin Patterson (above in a court sketch on Friday) looked disheveled with matted hair as she appeared after being charged with three counts of murder and five or attempted murders
While awaiting trial, Ms. Patterson is entitled to visitation from her two children, who are in their early teens, and from other relatives or friends.
All of these people can request to be contacted by phone as approved individuals on Ms. Patterson’s list to speak with in short weekly phone calls.
Victoria’s largest women’s prison will be Ms Patterson’s home until she is acquitted or convicted.
Court documents show Mrs. Patterson has been charged four times with the attempted murder of her husband, Simon Patterson.
These are said to have taken place between November 16 and 17, 2021, between May 25 and 27, 2022, on September 6, 2022 and during the mushroom lunch at her Leongatha home in Gippsland, Victoria in July 2023.
Mrs. Patterson is also charged with the murders of Heather Wilkinson, and Heather’s sister Gail Patterson and her husband, Don Patterson, the parents of Simon Patterson.
She also allegedly tried to kill Reverend Ian Wilkinson during that lunch.
At LaTrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court, Ms Patterson did not apply for bail and the court heard police would need 20 weeks to prepare a deed.
If she applies for bail at any time for release pending trial, Ms Patterson will have to prove to the court why she does not pose a risk to the community.
Police leave with bags of evidence from Erin Patterson’s smart Leongatha home, which she left on Thursday after being arrested for alleged murder
,